Givi box airborne at 80mph!

[racer]

I'm not impressed with the Givi stuff. Just got back from an Alps tour on a bike equipped with Give bags. More than once, they came loose after a bump and were dangling by the lower mounts. Twice they came open when the latch wasn't fully closed. It was always hard to tell if they were really latched shut or not.

 

[Denalosfjr]

The bump i hit was the metal edge at the end of a old steel truss bridge. 2 small pieces of electricial tape on the base plate latch area was all it took . I had been riding about 250 miles with the tape on before the box fell off.

All i can say is its my own dumb fault for doing a cheeseball repair. i wanted to post this up so others maybe will not follow me :dribble:

 

[Fred W]

Maybe not. Seems there are more folks who have had similar problems that I thought. I've had really good luck with the GIVI boxes as both trunk and saddlebags, and had not heard these grumblings before now.

I guess you could probably still say that "they suck, except compared to all the others".

 

[Danno]

I am satisfied with my GIVI and would say it does not suck. I probably should have paid more attention to the missing rubber bumpers or perhaps it was not latched down 100%. I can't be totally sure, I had only ridden about a mile when it came loose. Have to pay attention to it just like anything else.

 

[DeweyIsgod]

I've had two Givi cases come off. The 46 disappeared completely...40 minute drive to work and never noticed it come off until I pulled into the garage at work. I backtracked to look for it, but saw no signs. I dismissed that as a fluke where maybe I didn't latch it all the way.

Fast forward a year to the replacement 52. It came off after hitting a bump on the highway. By the time I got back to it, it was in a few pieces. I know it was latched because I'm paranoid about the last one and it made it 15 miles down the road before ejecting.

I'll be getting another case, but the next one I plan on attaching a couple safety cables. I rarely take off the topcase since it's the only place to stow my jacket when parked, so having safety cables to the metal won't bother me.

 

[DaJuice]

I'll elaborate on what I saw of Cruzin's case. We have many of the same farkles and ride a lot together. He had somewhere in the neighborhood of over 30K miles on his before the first incident then it happened again. After the 1st time we compared the play in our cases and they seemed very similar. However, when he got his replacement we compared again and the new one is much more solid. I think Givi has made some slight modifications to the V46 to tighten up the tolerances. It is possible that over time it slowly loosens up but I remember thinking when I 1st installed mine there was more play than there should have been.

Another thing he noticed on his new one is there are marks for drilling the holes for the top rack. When we did ours originally we had a paper pattern that came with the rack to locate the holes, I don't remember seeing locating marks on mine but I may have overlooked them since I had a pattern or this was another one of the tweaks they did recently.

 

[2006FJR]

I can fix it

 

[FJRBluesman]

<<<Snip There really isn't much history of GIVI bags flying off, and considering the number of units in use on all the various makes of motorcycles, one has to conclude it was your tape that "did you in" and not a faulty latch.

I also haven't heard much of this; however, mine is bolted down.
The original owner said he's heard of Givi's flying off, said he heard the locking mechanism was weak. He had too bolts going thru the box and Givi mount, secured by two nylon lock nuts. I've hated this hassle of the bolting down, there's not much room to do this it's sort of a PITA, but if you keep it on, I guess it's fine.

I was about to stop using the bolt down method so I could quickly remove it etc, I guess I'll rethink that idea.

BTW - The box doesn't really look too bad except for the scrapes, I thought it would have destroyed itself. Now it has character.

 

[mr.paul]

Just fwiw,

I have a V46 on a 2006 since new. After 38,000 miles of daily bumping (maybe 10 miles withoutthe box on) it has never given me any cause to worry. It seems to pound down the rubber bumpers after time and develops some play, but always seems secure. Since it is always on though, safety cables or pins seem like a decent idea.

mr.paul, from Minnesota

 

[MCML]

Have not ever lost my Givi - so far. The connection for the light bar, though, is not well designed, IMHO, and was the source of countless hours of noodling around. Switched to (un) screw together weather proof connectors years ago. Drilled a small hole in the Givi, sealed the hole with silicone, ran the wire into the box and up to the light bar. Connectors can reside under the pillion seat or outside just behind it. Or you can just hard wire the entire set up but that makes it more difficult to reinstall after you use the dykes to enable the removal of the box.

 

[VTFJR13]

Well after seeing a few people posting about there Givi cases flying off I guess I will have to tell my story. Now keep in mind I have been using Givi trunks on my bikes for years so it was heart breaking when my E460 came flying off my FJR. The first time it happened it was empty and I hit a really big bump. A friend was riding behind me and almost got hit by the flying Givi. It had been on my bike for a few days commuting back and fourth to work so it had to have been latched properly. So fast forward to a few months later I'm out for a ride in the fall and I stop at one of my favorite stops for food and gas. I get off my bike and I can't believe my eyes the F**king trunk is gone. So that is twice it came off when I hit a big bump. I retraced my steps and I couldn't find the trunk this time. The worst part was it had alot of stuff in it this time. My Aerostich electric vest being one of them. I was pissed. So now that is why I have the Yamaha OEM touring trunk. I can see the latch on the Yamaha trunk and I know for a fact that it is locked on. But it hasn't been without it's down falls. It has developed some cracking on the base of the trunk so I have had to make some repairs to it. I bought it used so I don't know if it was cracked a little before or if it all happened this year while I was using it. I think I have over loaded it a bit so that probably didn't help. But I like the look of the Yamaha trunk, it matches the bike, and one key works on all the cases and the bike. So I would buy another one(Yamaha touring trunk) if I had to.

Eric N

 

[Minuteman]

My Yamaha Trunk finally gave up the ghost. I had problems with the base and epoxied a steel frame into the base to stop the cracking. The Factory sent me a base that I installed the steel frame into , seemed to fix the problem and the trunk was holding it own but after a spirited 5000 mile trip thru all the Mountain roads I could find in Wyoming, Montana and around WFO in Eureka. The bottom latch area has cracked and luckly I noticed it before losing the trunk on the road. It lasted 34,000 + miles.

Now heres the question, should I buy a Givi or another Factory Trunk ? I was going to buy a Givi thinking it was more durable, but after reading about the problems, I dont know what to do ?

Your 2 cents please.

Thanks, Dan

 

[Minuteman]

My Yamaha Trunk finally gave up the ghost. I had problems with the base and epoxied a steel frame into the base to stop the cracking. The Factory sent me a base that I installed the steel frame into , seemed to fix the problem and the trunk was holding it own but after a spirited 5000 mile trip thru all the Mountain roads I could find in Wyoming, Montana and around WFO in Eureka. The bottom latch area has cracked and luckly I noticed it before losing the trunk on the road. It lasted 34,000 + miles.Now heres the question, should I buy a Givi or another Factory Trunk ? I was going to buy a Givi thinking it was more durable, but after reading about the problems, I dont know what to do ?

Your 2 cents please.

Thanks, Dan

Where is the best price and place to buy Givi Trunks. ?

 

[wfooshee]

These flying Givi trunks. . . . Are they on Givi bases or third-party adapter plates, or some of each? Enquiring minds want to know.

 

[LAF]

These flying Givi trunks. . . . Are they on Givi bases or third-party adapter plates, or some of each? Enquiring minds want to know.

+1

I am very curious on this answer. Could you guys tell us, factory mount, Givi mount, or something other?

 

[VTFJR13]

These flying Givi trunks. . . . Are they on Givi bases or third-party adapter plates, or some of each? Enquiring minds want to know.

+1

I am very curious on this answer. Could you guys tell us, factory mount, Givi mount, or something other?

I had a brand new Givi monokey topcase mount. You know the one were you take of the oem grab handles and replace with the metal givi frame and monokey base plate. The trunk was used off ebay so maybe it was just worn out. I was really in shock from my Givi trunk coming off I always thought of Givi products as being of very high quality. But the hear that others have had the same problem as I did I'm beginning to wonder.

 

[DeweyIsgod]

These flying Givi trunks. . . . Are they on Givi bases or third-party adapter plates, or some of each? Enquiring minds want to know.

Both of mine lost were on a Givi rack...albeit the plastic one. Personally, I think it's a design flaw not to separate the keyed mounting lock from the opening lock. If you separated the two, the mounting lock could be a lot more robust.

I bought my e52 from twistedthrottle.com. They were the cheapest when you considered shipping when I was looking last time. Although, I see now they're carrying a Coocase box. Anyone have any experience with it.

 

[Fred W]

I've bought all my Givi stuff from Glen at Sporttour.com. He seems to have the best prices and includes free shipping on Givi cases.

Wow, I guess it's time to start thinking of better ways to secure the trunk when mounted. Especially since I often carry a bunch of semi-valuable stuff in it when 2-up. The prospect of losing 2 sets of rain gear, jacket liners, bike cover, digital camera, netbook, etc does not have a great amount of appeal to me. I suppose since I only use it when 2-up, my trusty pillion would alert me to the trunk's demise, but there is still a possibility it would go somewhere that it could not be retrieved from.

 

[Cruzin]

My in is mounted with the factory mount, on the first one I think I had lost one of the rubber bumpers on the base so it was a little loser then normal :angry:

The new one works great I put 8,000 miles on it in 13 days while doing the Spank Rally and had no issues with it :yahoo: I was on some pretty gnarly gravel roads and rock piles riding it like my YZ too :blink: There isn't much travel on the FJR's suspesion

I like the Givi box and would get another one just make sure to keep an eye on the rubber bumbers or maybe that spring idea. If ya never take it off like DaJuice I would just bolt it down to be on the safe side. Besides they look better then the Yamaha one anyway B)

 

[wfooshee]

Something else that occurs to me . . . . One of my regular to-do things with my E52 is to remove the lock plate and pull the stuff out from behind the latch button and clean it out. Rain gunk can fill that cavity with some serious spludge, and I can envision the latch pin not moving all the way out under spring pressure if it's too nasty in there. I get in there maybe a couple times a year.

My case has never rattled, doesn't move on the mount, and I've never been afraid for it. It doesn't see triple-digits except briefly, but it has seen 130+.